I'd be surprised if there's a card I reference
more often than I do Doubling Season. I'm even
more surprised that this is the first time we've
ever reviewed it. I feel like we've mentioned it
so many times that you can probably assess it
without my even saying anything. But I will
point out the interesting fact that it was the
first modern card which was perceived as
"casual-only" yet still cracked the upper tier
of cost on the secondary market. And if you're
wondering why it's been reprinted so
infrequently, that would be because its doubling
affects cards that enter play with counters, and
thus makes most planeswalkers able to go
ultimate the same turn you cast them. That makes
it perhaps the most prominent card to go from
"casual-only" to potentially broken in
competitive play. It will most
certainly continue to be imitated as time goes
by, but there's nothing quite like the original.

Doubling Season doubles
both tokens and counters. Everyone loves tokens,
and everyone loves counters, so this combines
both of them into a wonderful little package.
Unfortunately, the package is a five-mana
enchantment that has to sit on board to do
anything and is useless in a vacuum, but it’s
still good times once it drops and you have
things to do with it, like cheap token
generation.

The most infamous
interaction, though, is with planeswalkers. The
coming-into-play trigger for a planeswalker
gives it loyalty counters equal to its starting
loyalty; Doubling Season doubles the loyalty
they get, so you’ll have most planeswalkers
ready to use their ultimates as soon as they
make it into play. It does not interact with
their +X abilities, since that's a cost and not
an actual effect.

It's a powerful effect that
has seen some Constructed play; while it's hard
to build around it, the ability is absurdly
powerful, and it's tempting to try and harness
the power of planeswalker ultimates. It's
usually a bit too expensive to make work,
though, so be wary of trying to harness its
power for your use.

Constructed: 3

Casual: 5

Limited: 1.75

Multiplayer: 5

Commander: 5

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